Complicating Conscience, Refreshing Discontent

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Published: Mar 22, 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13153/diam.47.2016.868
Keywords:
conscience natural law rationality civil disobedience conscientious objection plantation slavery

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Paul J. Medeiros
Providence College

Abstract

The 19th Century New England author Thoreau provides an approach to conscience and unjust laws approximating that given by St. Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologiae. But the portrait of conscience given by Thoreau in the 1848 oration “Civil Disobedience” is incomplete. Thoreau’s approach is solved by accepting insights given in Part I and Part I–II of Summa Theologiae. Allowing St. Thomas’ insights requires reform of Thoreau’s civil disobedience and conscientious objection. But Thoreau’s arguments are given new life.

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How to Cite
Medeiros, Paul J. 2016. “Complicating Conscience, Refreshing Discontent”. Diametros, no. 47 (March):50-63. https://doi.org/10.13153/diam.47.2016.868.
Issue
No. 47 (2016)
Section
Special Topic - Thomas Aquinas' Theory of Conscience and Contemporary Debates on Conscientious Objection

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Author Biography

Paul J. Medeiros, Providence College

Dr. Paul J. MedeirosDepartment of PhilosophyProvidence CollegeOne Cunningham SquareProvidence, Ri 02918USA

E-mail: pmedeir1@providence.edu

Paul Medeiros serves in areas of Ethics with Providence College, a Roman Catholic institution located in Rhode Island, USA.

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References

Plato [1989] – Plato, The Dialogues of Plato, Vol. 1, trans. R.E. Allen, Yale University Press, New Haven 1989.

Aquinas [1947] – St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Vol. 1, trans. Fathers of the Dominican English Province, Benziger Brothers, Inc., New York, NY 1947.

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Specq, Walls, Granger [2012] – François Specq, Laura D. Walls, Michel Granger (eds.), Thoreauvian Modernities: Transatlantic Conversations on an American Icon, University of Athens Press, Georgia 2012.

Thoreau [1906a] – Henry D. Thoreau, „Civil Disobedience,” Cape Cod and Miscellanies, [in:] The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Houghton Mifflin & Co, Boston, MA 1906, p. 356–387.

Thoreau [1906b] – Henry D. Thoreau, Walden, [in:] The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Houghton Mifflin & Co, Boston, MA 1906.

Solomon [1988] – Robert C. Solomon, Continental Philosophy Since 1750, Oxford University Press, New York, NY 1988.